Sunday, June 5, 2011

Richard Childress Takes Off His Watch

Everyone knows if you are about to get in a fight the first thing you save is your watch. Richard Childress reportedly took his off and headed for Kyle Busch in the Camping World Truck Series garage after Saturday's race.

Upon approaching the driver, Childress – a 65-year-old grandfather – initiated the altercation without a discussion, placing Busch in a headlock and punching him two or three times. Busch then went to the ground in a defensive position to avoid further injury, but Childress attempted to punch Busch again after he rose.

Busch had a tough race, was upset about the changes he made to his own truck and was then raced hard for fifth position by Joey Coulter, who drives for Childress. Coulter basically put a mini-slide job on Busch on the last corner to take the fifth position. There was no contact involved.

On the cool down lap, Busch pulled alongside of Coulter and made contact. Busch apparently did not like Coulter's final lap pass. Both the original final lap pass and the later dust-up on the track were shown by SPEED, the network televising the event.

Most fans were long gone to either Nationwide Series qualifying coverage on ESPN2 or Grand Am sports cars racing on SPEED immediately after the truck race was over. Childress was not watching either, as he apparently had some unfinished business with Busch.

As word of the altercation got around, details from reporters were scarce. SPEED's Ray Dunlap was the first to use social media for an update.

This from Dunlap on Twitter:

Hot news from the track. Grandpa Childress put a whipping on Kyle Busch in the truck garage. Look for big sun glasses on kubu Sunday.

During the Nationwide Series pre-race show on ESPN, host Allen Bestwick made a small comment about the incident and directed fans to tune into NASCAR Now on ESPN2 at 9AM on Sunday morning. In today's world of instant communication, that just did not wash.

Over on SPEED, the host of Speed Center Adam Alexander had truck series analyst Phil Parsons call into the show. All Parsons could do was relate what he had heard and recap the history between Childress and the Busch brothers. For the network that carried the race, it was not a good effort.

Once the Nationwide Series race was over, SportsCenter took to the air. It was very clear that someone in upper management had forced the stick-and-ball boys to put NASCAR highlights and stories first. They were not happy about it.

On-air talent John Anderson presented dreadful highlights of the race which included the same awkward mistakes Marty Reid made when calling the finish live. The end result was NASCAR being made to look like a bunch of redneck idiots who run out of gas.

Moments later, Anderson got NASCAR Now Lead Reporter Marty Smith on the phone for an update on the Childress incident. Anderson, who gleefully calls big hits in NFL games, fights in hockey games and loves a good base-brawl was appalled by the behavior of Childress.

Anderson simply could not understand why these NASCAR types could not just get along. Luckily, Smith is a veteran of such nonsense at ESPN and took his sweet time explaining exactly what fans wanted to hear but the SportsCenter anchors could not absorb.

The confirmation of just how much SportsCenter hates NASCAR was clear when the awful segment was over and some baseball highlights popped-up. "Now, we got some baseball!!," Anderson screamed. His long four minute NASCAR nightmare was finally over.

It will be Shannon Spake hosting the Sunday morning edition of NASCAR Now with Smith and Nicole Briscoe reporting from Kansas. This is the first NASCAR show on Sunday, so it should be interesting to watch exactly how the Childress news is presented.

NASCAR has been completely quiet on the issue, saying that the organization is gathering facts and investigating the incident. While Tuesdays are the normal NASCAR penalty day, that is more for infractions involving cars and equipment. If the sanctioning body acts overnight, it could make for a busy news morning.

NASCAR RaceDay on SPEED is up at 10:30AM. This will give Kyle Petty an opportunity to offer his views on the subject while Wendy Venturini and Hermie Sadler will do the reporting. Kenny Wallace is also on the program, but his wild rants recently have left his credibility in the dust.

By the time FOX comes on the air at 12:30PM, fans will have been exposed to three hours of pre-race programming. The words Kyle Busch and Richard Childress will have been said many times. It should be very interesting to see how FOX chooses to begin this final race telecast for the network in 2011.

This post will serve to host your comments on the Sunday pre-race shows on ESPN2 and SPEED. We will open the live race blog for comments on FOX. To add your opinion on this topic, just click on the comments button below. We are not asking about the incident, but your reaction to media coverage of it.

64 comments:

You wonder what FOX will do? That's easy. Mike Joy and DWTS will be cuddling poor widdol Kylie and saying what a mean mean man Richard Childless is. NASCAR hasn't a way to put an owner on probation, do they?

I hate twitter. Today it ruined the Grand-Am and ARCA race but now its the only thing that gets me through a live race that I'm trying to watch on TV. That said I don't think this would have come up on the prerace if it wasn't for it being forced by Richard Childress trending at one point but telling us nothing but tune in tomorrow is unacceptable.

They should just call sportscenter baseball center I was offended by the stupidity on what is supposed to a news show. Southpark did a better job of covering NASCAR than those guys.

Speed at least kept telling us to tune in but never told us anything that we already didn't see online.

Hopefully someone will get some interviews tomorrow with some witnesses or RC and KB

KyBu has needed that for about 3 years ...I wish I had been there to see it ... Hell, I wish I had been in Richards shoes .... even though most folks in the garage area and TV people feel Kyle needed a good a** whuppin , I think nobody will have the stones to say so tomorrow ... Don

Whenever something big like this happens i cringe at the thought of having to hear about it every second for the next week. That being said ill be more than happy to put up with the non stop coverage of this incident cause that punk has had that coming for so long. Did he really need to be in this truck race today? NO! Im proud of Joey for racing Kyle aggressively cause if somebody came down to my level and stole my money and my points and my wins id make darn sure he doesnt finish in front of me and do whatever it takes to keep that from happening. Go RC. I was shocked to hear that it was him doing the fighting of all people Kyle has ticked off but im glad somebody finally drew a line in the sand with that kid.

To go against the grain, it sounds like RC overreacted. A 65 year old man could not maintain his composure after Kyle apparently told him something. Instead he restrained and sucker punched him. Whether you like Kyle or not, what Childress did was not honorable.

Ole DW could have a tough day on Sunday. A year or two ago, he almost broke into tears while saying good bye for Fox race broadcasts for the year. Since becoming the face of NASCAR on Fox, I expect he will be even worse. And Kyle has had a bad run over the last few weeks with the trouble with Harvick at Darlington, probation, a bad run at Charlotte, the speeding ticket, and now the incident with Childress. DW must be an emotional wreck. It will be interesting to see if he can keep his emotions under control.

JD last night's NASCAR segment was such a joke!!! you nailed it. some big wigs at the BSPN made those stick and ball guys do NASCAR at the top. I thought the hilight was awful and those two buffoons on SC set the tone from the beginning that it was going to be sarcastic and smug. what it really was, was two guys not having a clue about the sport and being thrown into the fire. so if you don't know anything, just make fun of it!!!! that hilight was really bad and they too like the lead announcer tried to call trevor bayne to the win. I couldn't believe it! for a place that calls itself the world wide leader in sports it was embarrassing ... or do folks at BSPN not think NASCAR is a sport? I also enjoyed the over hype of danica's great run on the unofficial results page ...10th a lap down. again, those two SC buffoons don't know squat about NASCAR ... 10th for danica must be great!!!! SC is unwatchable!

I read somewhere that RC had had a previous discussion with Kyle, telling him that if he kept damaging cars HE would settle it with him. The man's word is good. Now all those that were apalled with drivers using their race cars as weapons will probably be horrified with someone settling things 'man to man'. Perhaps now the Busch brothers will learn not to mess with the 'old school' racers like Jimmy Spencer and RC. I guess the Busch brothers aren't used to anyone who does something other than run their mouth.

Looks like the Busch brothers are a bit hard-headed, however NASCAR people aren't too friendly either when they get their cars wrecked for no reason. It took Spencer to wake up Kurt, and RC to wake up Kyle. About the same deal. "Have at it boys" And in advance, DW, just shut up and no whining about it today.

I saw the "nightmare" of the ESPN goobers having to do NASCAR stuff. They appall me with what they do, but, hey, no one listens to me in Bristol.

And before I get to the issue let me say I thought last night's -- late last night's ARCA broadcast was very good. Nice simple and clean, no overkill of gimmicks, ONE in-car they showed ONCE and Ken Schrader was fun to listen to doing color.

Anyway, as to what happened I have a theory and it is pretty simple. Chrildress was bad pissed. He had said semi-publicly some time ago he wished driver would stop damaging equipemt especially after a race because fixing it is expensive even for a gazillionaire car owner like him. Yet here comes KYBu, and KyBu does not listen. In the space of a couple weeks he pushed Kevin's car out of the way when Keven blocked him from getting to the garage and it wunks the wall slowly. Yesterday he gives a "love tap" to a Childress truck. So, there is grandpa. "Boy just won't listen," he thinks, "Well, I'll show him a love tap. Maybe he will listen to that."

And he goes over and he does. Coolest sidelight is that Childress took off the watch first.

I've been around Richard many times, especially when Sr. was still alive and they used to hang out together with fans in joints. I have no doubt he has a temper.

But who do I ultimately blame? JD, of course. He wrote on a live blog week or so ago:(paraphrase) "...no matter what you say Jack Roush is one tough sob."

I am seeing across all the story comments and message boards that some of the same people who, last week, were calling for Kyle Busch to be persecuted to the fullest extent of the law for his role in the speeding incident are now shocked and dismayed to see Richard Childress 'protect his turf'. These people must be drinking from the same water supply as the ESPN employees in Bristol, CT. Thank the heavens above that Marty Smith is a Virginia native and has not been infected with that same virus.

Its very difficult to understand why ESPN allows the SC staff to belittle a sport that they pay a lot of money to be a broadcast partner, If they really feel this way, do not renew your rights! Why does a network who has a history with NASCAR and actually was the first network to broadcast nationally racing on a weekly basis allow the work to be made a joke by SC! If ESPN does not support NASCAR then why does NASCAR support ESPN? I found last nights race call the worst it could be! I would be ashamed of the call to the finish that Marty Reed tried last night! If the on air talent does not take it seriously who does the network think is watching this program. I for one find it wrong to listen to a fool ruin the races by their caviler attitude and can not reason why NASCAR allows this. They should fine the network. The fools behind the pictures do not have a clue as to what a race fan wants to see during a telecast. It is the only sport that the pictures are broadcast after the fact! The director is ALWAYS behind the action, if hockey and football lost as many key live action moments as the clowns attempting to show us racing they would be pulled out after the first year. If last nights reporting on NASCAR did not disgust or insult you, how could you possibly be a fan of racing.

This is way above camera angles and delivery, its basic respect! The same as the Childress/ Busch issue. RC is a large part of NASCAR at every level, one if not the most respected people in RACING! From driving to owning to being a CHAMPION. The man has faced every consevable senario any business person could deal with and this is how he is treated? I take issue with this and if you call yourself a fan, IMHO, so should you!

Like Bill, I have to disagree with the RC cheerleaders and KB bashers. Why are we applauding premediated violence? You don't act stupid every time someone acts like a jerk. If KB chose to bring charges, based on what we know, RC would probably be found guilty of at least assault. It is one thing to strike someone in the heat of the moment but quite another to plan ahead to do it.

so NASCAR has become professional wrestling - have at em boys has become punch them if they do something you do not like. Harvick was wrong for stopping after pit road, getting out of car - do what? - oh yeah sucker punch KB. Busch was criminally wrong for speeding thru his own neighborhood putting people at risk and finally Richard Childress should be arrested for assault. Its unbelievable that some FANS of NASCAR think that this "whooping" is justified. Maybe NASCAR is done as we know it. Childress should be thrown out of the sport.

I watched the entire Truck Race and the Sports Center "analysis" last night. What has gotten no coverage is a replay of the "mini slide job" Coulter put on Busch. For three or four of the last laps in the race,Kyle was on the outside of Coulter. On the last lap, Coulter was desperate to break into the Top 5. Coulter slid up and either by accident or on purpose almost put Kyle in the wall...at 175 mph. He claims he was surprised to have gotten "loose". Yet he was under Kyle for 3-4 laps without getting loose. On the cool down lap, the booth said they saw tire smoke where the two made contact. Nothing unusual there.If you didn't record the race, watch the replay on Speed this week. They had a good camera angle on the mini slude job. Sunday morning's Nascar Now reported that Coach Gibbs went to the hauler as soon as the garage opened. Now, lets see how objective the TV 'experts' handle this.

Great article JD and I really liked the title, too. Not much said on NN this morning looking forward to seeing KB at the driver's meeting. Someone said we'll be hearing about this for a week, at least Trevor Bayne will get a reprieve. Only 28,000 "fans" at the track last night. That's awful.

Richard Childress reminds me of someone long ago. He was a great leader and motivator who got good results from his team and was respected by many. He lost his temper and attacked a member of the team which resulted in him losing his job in a sport he loved.

RC reminds me of Woody Hayes. The only difference is that Woody didn't plan the attack ahead of time.

I'm listening to Race Day. If I hear the phrase "the closer" one more time, I think I'm going tp puke! Race Day HAS been informative though. I learned that the Cup driver with three wins this year is a super-super superstar according to Kenny Wallace. And this is with leading all of nine laps this year! Go figure....

Boy that Sportscenter right after the NNS race was awkward. I feel sorry for Marty Smith having to put up with those yahoos.Now if Kyle B. had punched back at old man Childress, he would've been called a punk anyways for picking on an old man. RC=really classless.

Speaking of Marty Smith. I'm no fan of Marty.To be fair, I've read some long articles he's written that I thought were really well done. But put him in front of a camera and he comes across as stiff and wooden. Like most columnists covering Nascar, I don't think he has any real understanding of the intracasies of a race car or racing. He didn't acquit himself well last night on Sports Center. He opined that what might have set Childress off was that the crew was going to have to work lots of hours to repair the damage from the 'doughnut' that Kyle put on Coulter's truck!!?! I'm serious, he really said that. Yet team owners don't seem to complain when their drivers wad up a bunch of cars (the exception is Rusty Wallace Lol!). Marty also failed to mention coulter almost running Kyle into the wall. I think it's going to be a long day and an even longer week. Breaking news! "Golden Horseshoe" is a hot topic today. Stay tuned for more brilliance from the talking heads.

I don't really see what the big deal is all about. It happened 30 minutes AFTER the race. So? Would there be this much hoopola over nothing if it would have been two contestants for Miss America after the fact?

Childress should have sent Busch the bill for repairing the vehicle. Hit the little fart where it would hurt the most. In his pocket book.

We know that Nascar refuses to do anything to drivers such as Kyle or Carl (who deliberately rammed into Brad K)..they want the publicity. However, the publicity doesn't negate the fact that Kansas has always been a follow the leader race until they run of out fuel (boring)...eh.

these are times I miss Bill France Jr. For those that read Larry Mac's book many years ago he spoke of having a major fit on pit road as crew chief - Allison maybe? and being called to Bill Jrs trailer who said something to the effect of. You like your job, you homes in Alabama and North Carolina? Done mess it up. We need the guidance of Bill Jr today.

The call to lead with NASCAR was a smart one. I NEVER watch SportsCenter but I wanted an update on RCR vs KB. How in the world those announcers can be so dismissive and STUPID about the sport is beyond me. Fuel mileage is complicated and part of the sport much in the way hand signals and use of pitching staff is in baseball. I don't understand much of that either but I sure wouldn't publicly say something like "why was the coach just standing there brushing flies off his jersey". Guess the difference here is I have respect for other sports and how I appear to others...these goobs apparently don't care about such things. PRobably expected to be high fived at the bar later by their fellow NASCAR hating buddies. As for RC vs KB; I totally expect Waltrip to put himself in the story somehow and take Kyle's side. Heck, he was probably in Kyle's coach rocking him to sleep last night. Havn't seen Wendy's interview with KB yet but I already know it'll be heavily media coached. Buzz words "learning experience", "move on", "something to build on", "lack of judgement", etc.

I'm trying not to laugh out loud. Carl intentionally bumping into Brad?? You could make a DVD of Brad wrecking people multiple times in NNS. Heck he wrecked Carl on the STRAIGHTAWAY at St Loius!I believe Brad wrecked Carl three times. How many times did he wreck Hamlin before Denny had enough and wrecked him back. Brad tried to wreck Kyle on the last lap and in the next turn, Kyle wrecked him back.I can remenber Brad wrecking Mike Bliss on purpose. Enough examples? Brad learned though. When he got to Cup he realized that it wouldn't be tolerated. Don't quote me but I think Jeff Burton talked to Brad.

Kyle Petty never fails to amaze me. We just heard Mike Helton say that Kyle Busch did nothing on or off the track to provoke Childress's actions yesterday. If you go back and look at the tapes of Darlington, Kyle only turned Harvick after Harvick rammed him and then ran him down the track. Did Kyle confront Harvick on pit road ? No. Yet I just heard Petty imply that Busch was the problem.

I don't want to go off-topic, but I just heard a tease on Speed where Dave Despain asks Crroll Shelby, ..."what makes you tick?" To hear the answer we'll have to tune in Thursday night to hear Despain's show. But where I'm going with this is that Shelby has had I believe two heart transplants. I had the opportunity to tour McCluskey's in Torrance who does restorations on many of the Cobras.

Like Bill & Osbornke, not a fan of RC doing this at his age. I know he lives to pay $ dollar to hunt & kill animals globally & he must have a huge temper.

That said, if Kyle deserved to be punched it was long ago between drivers after a crash out, but I am no fan of violence. Maybe this buffoonery of RC is my latest in losing interest to this sport.

I can hear a couple of my friends now giving me the business of the violence in this redneck sport & will have NO DEFENSE.

Now as far as BSPN Sportscenter, their arrogance & indeed, smug attitudes as if they were disgusted to even MENTION NASCAR races on SC last night was upsetting. I take it they always do this?

I've not watched SC in months but was troubled at their "Attitude & vocal delivery"..then again the fight details continue to disappoint. Sure KyB has a smart mouth & I'm TIRED of his carpet bagging in the other series but that's a problem NASCAR needs to fix.

He wrecks others that don't have the $$ to fix wrecked cars but RC DOES have the money.

Never been a fan of RCs especially when I was filled in on some back stories & his easily found online thirst for traveling the globe to collect/kill more dead animals. I don't get it. If he wanted to hunt to donate to food pantries, fine. But to flip out on ky Bu like this though amusing for a few seconds maybe, is NOT ACCEPTABLE.

I just don't get it... the support for a man old enough to know better...this was not a HEAT of the moment between two drivers who'd just gotten out of their cars after a heated race fight.

People made FUN of J Logano's dad for getting upset over Edward's wrecking his son, was seen as a butt-in father, but folks are applauding RC?

I'm confused & even more embarrassed for this sport with truly-still-a-redneck image :(

52 year fan---it actually FIRST came from Lee Montgomery. He read on Facebook about it, at the time the drivers' wife's name was unknown, but it came out later that it was Sara Peters (she quickly removed the post). Not sure of the exact times, but on the Twitter history, Lee's FB post/tweet was 19 hours ago (his Facebook/twitter are linked so what he tweets goes to Facebook) & Ray's tweet was 18 hours ago (based on the time I'm typing this post).

Lee wasn't at the track so didn't know but was asking about it based on Sara's Facebook post, so we had been talking about it & there were rumblings that it was indeed true prior to Ray's tweet.

Kenny Wallace had better be careful calling RC a "chicken". He might regret that the next time he's looking for a job.

I come down on the side of Childress on this one. When Jimmy Spencer finally smacked KuBu, he got the message that he just couldn't seem to absorb before that. Hopefully KyBu will learn from it, too, but he may be thicker than his brother - or more arrogant, whatever.

Understandably, violence should not be the first option and it sounds like there has been some prior conversation, but sometimes you need to make a stand, I think RC decided it was time.

I also watched the SC debacle following the Nationwide race. I thought I was going to see post-race, was shocked to see SC come on and then apalled by the obnoxious talking heads - almost as much as I was annoyed with Marty Reid not knowing where the start finish line was and totally blowing the call.

When did Adam Alexander become the face of nascar TV ? He is all over the place. Just like .. well you know the rest of the joke. What is not a joke is this ..WE now enter the darkest days of TVcoverage.. TNT and then theeeeeeworst .. most hideous most horrid blabbering of espn. And finally ... could someone find marty reed and tell him .. NObody on the planet gives a damnabout how many lead changes thereare. Finally Worst Wick worst wick WHY DOES HE TALK SO @#%$q#%^$%^&e%&e7E LOUD? Good nite

With all the crap that Kyle Busch has said and done on track and OFF I cannot believe that he did not do something that provoked Mr. Childress into doing what 80% of fans would love the opportunity to do. Why nascar is defending Busch escapes me, he can do nothing wrong, even when he does wrong he gets a slap on wrist and its only Rowdy or "wild thing" thats what he does. The respect that Mr. Childress has in Nascar should outweigh any "punishment" that nascar should levy. Due to the fact that Mr. Childress to my knowledge has never been in this situation before. The media and nascar to just report Kyle's version because Nascar "reccommended" that Mr. Childress not speak about this was ridiculous, nothing should have been reported until BOTH sides were heard from. Once again Nascar proves there is 1 set of rules for 42 teams and owners and 1 set for Gibbs and Kyle Busch

How is this incident from RC any different from AJ Foyt in Indy victory lane some years back - when I think he slapped Arie Luyendyk? What did Indy Cars do to AJ? While I don't condone either, that Busch boy has had it coming for some time.

It seems that DW needs to get rid of those Toyota glasses so that he can see clearly what is going on with the races. Instead, he's fist to make excuses for anything that happens with KyBu And then later has to backpedal on what he just said when the reruns clearly show the truth.

Right on Richard Childress! KyBu has been wrecking cars intentionally for too long and NASCAR lets him get away with it.

Sophia--I'm not a fan of hunting, but as long as it's legal and he's not taking down endangered species or something, he's doing nothing wrong. I'd rather take photos than trophy heads (kinda makes me sick) myself, but to each his own. But I don't understand how his hunting has anything to do with his temper. The hunters I've known do not hunt 'angry', it's for sport (whether I agree it's a sport or not.)

No, it was a not a heat of the moment thing. But that doesn't mean that you shouldn't follow through on your word--if he told him not to touch his cars again & Kyle did...well, it was RC's decision to keep his promise. Sometimes you just have to draw a line in the sand. That's how you earn respect. I am not embarrassed that people will think NASCAR is 'redneck'--that's their problem if they choose to be ignorant and accept the 'ESPN' version of things. NASCAR has now given Rc a whopper fine (which goes to charity, yeah!) and put him on double secret probation. But the hope is, Kyle will finally learn that if he has an issue with a driver, take care of it with the driver, don't be taking it out on the owner's equipment.